Vacuum Forming - Roller Cutting Process

Roller cutting is a fast and efficient way of cutting vacuum formed items from the original sheet of vacuum forming material. As well as cutting the shape, the cutter can be used to cut holes for cables, euroslots, clamshell packaging, product features etc.

Roller cutting

The roller cutting process works as follows :-

The vacuum formed product is placed in a roller cutter tool with shaped vertical blades and a plastic cutting board is placed on top of it.

The roller cutter tool and cutting board are pushed through the roller cutter machine together. The moving rollers inside the roller cutting machine press the product, cutter and cutting board together to punch out the shape and any other features.

The finished product is then removed from the roller cutter tool.

What can be achieved with roller cutting vacuum formings ?

Because the vacuum formed item and the cutter move sideways through the roller cutter machine, some distortion can occur. This makes roller cutting unsuitable for items with a lot of features closely together, or where a very precise location of the feature is needed. Items where such precision is needed can be finished by press cutting.

Roller cutting can't be used for making holes or features in the side of a vacuum forming, as the cutter is always pushed in from the top. If the product is a low-volume one, it may not be cost effective to have the roller cutter made - see our handy summary of vacuum forming finishing methods.